The Template::Stash module defines an object class which is used to store variable values for the runtime use of the template processor. Variable values are stored internally in a hash reference (which itself is blessed to create the object) and are accessible via the get() and set() methods.

Variables may reference hash arrays, lists, subroutines and objects as well as simple values. The stash automatically performs the right magic when dealing with variables, calling code or object methods, indexing into lists, hashes, etc.

The stash has clone() and declone() methods which are used by the template processor to make temporary copies of the stash for localising changes made to variables.

Dotted compound variables can be retrieved by specifying the variable elements by reference to a list. Each node in the variable occupies two entries in the list. The first gives the name of the variable element, the second is a reference to a list of arguments for that element, or 0 if none.

The clone() method creates and returns a new Template::Stash object which represents a localised copy of the parent stash. Variables can be freely updated in the cloned stash and when declone() is called, the original stash is returned with all its members intact and in the same state as they were before clone() was called.

For convenience, a hash of parameters may be passed into clone() which is used to update any simple variable (i.e. those that don't contain any namespace elements like 'foo' and 'bar' but not 'foo.bar') variables while cloning the stash. For adding and updating complex variables, the set() method should be used after calling clone(). This will correctly resolve and/or create any necessary namespace hashes.

A cloned stash maintains a reference to the stash that it was copied from in its '_PARENT' member.